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I was 10 years old when Spidey first hit the stands. I'd already gotten
hooked on the Marvel monster stuff that preceded him. I even remember
thinking, "hey, this Amazing Adult Fantasy comic is cool! A whole book drawn
by my favorite guy!" Wow, what that became...
So, a year or so later (circa Amazing Spider-Man # 6 or 7), my Dad took me and a
friend to NYC to see a ball game. But our young minds strayed elsewhere...
We found Steve Ditko's name in the phone book (!!!!) and promptly called him.
He answered. He sounded busy.
But we stammered and effused about his work as best we could and, to our
shared disbelief, were granted a brief conversation with him!!
We asked how he liked doing Spidey; he was cool enough to reply:
"I hope Stan will let me help develop the stories more." Old news now, but, hey, in mid-'63, this was a scoop!!
We asked how he thought up that cool costume. He said, proudly: "That's my job."
We told him what our favorite stories were (#s 2, 3 & 4) and praised the
villains. My buddy said he loved the friction with JJJ too.
"Thanks..."
(Uh-oh!! He's starting to sound bored!!) We were already forgetting the rest
of what we wanted to ask!!
I then asked him how old he was: a typical kid question. There was a long
pause.
"How old do you think I should be?" he asked back.
We waffled some more, instantly embarrassed, and I said: "20? 30...?".
"Better stop there," he said, adding (something like) "go back to 20," very
wryly.
And before we could ask if we could visit him at his studio, he finished with,
"and I gotta go back to work to keep kids like you happy."
That comment alone was almost worth not visiting him, in retrospect.
And my friend and I have relived this brief brush with His Mysterious
Highness often enough to remember it practically verbatim.
What's a memory like that worth?
- JOE ALASKEY
Thanks to Joe for this piece. Joe has put in 15 years as all of the WB classic character voices; "Rugrats" (as "Grandpa Lou"); guest voices for many Cartoon Network series including "Samurai Jack" & "Harvey Birdman"; & the voice of Chuck Jones' "TimberWolf". Most importantly, he is an "age-old Ditkophile!"
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